TY - GEN
T1 - Investigating the Impact of Humor on Learning in Robot-Assisted Education
AU - Hei, Xiaoxuan
AU - Zhang, Heng
AU - Tapus, Adriana
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 IEEE.
PY - 2025/1/1
Y1 - 2025/1/1
N2 - Social robots have shown significant potential in enhancing learning experiences, and humor has been proven to be beneficial for learning. This study investigates the impact of both the presence and timing of humor on students' learning outcomes and overall learning experience. A total of 24 participants were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions: (C1) interact with a robot with no humor, (C2) interact with a robot with humor at pre-defined moments during the lesson, and (C3) interact with a robot that triggers humor based on engagement levels. The results revealed that the humor at pre-defined moments condition (C2) led to significantly better learning outcomes and longer interaction times compared to the other two conditions. While the adaptive humor in Condition C3 did not significantly outperform Condition C1, it showed positive effects on participants' perceived learning effectiveness and engagement. These findings contribute to the understanding of how humor, when strategically timed, can enhance the effectiveness of social robots in educational settings.
AB - Social robots have shown significant potential in enhancing learning experiences, and humor has been proven to be beneficial for learning. This study investigates the impact of both the presence and timing of humor on students' learning outcomes and overall learning experience. A total of 24 participants were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions: (C1) interact with a robot with no humor, (C2) interact with a robot with humor at pre-defined moments during the lesson, and (C3) interact with a robot that triggers humor based on engagement levels. The results revealed that the humor at pre-defined moments condition (C2) led to significantly better learning outcomes and longer interaction times compared to the other two conditions. While the adaptive humor in Condition C3 did not significantly outperform Condition C1, it showed positive effects on participants' perceived learning effectiveness and engagement. These findings contribute to the understanding of how humor, when strategically timed, can enhance the effectiveness of social robots in educational settings.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105029975604
U2 - 10.1109/IROS60139.2025.11247660
DO - 10.1109/IROS60139.2025.11247660
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:105029975604
T3 - IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
SP - 21466
EP - 21473
BT - IROS 2025 - 2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Conference Proceedings
A2 - Laugier, Christian
A2 - Renzaglia, Alessandro
A2 - Atanasov, Nikolay
A2 - Birchfield, Stan
A2 - Cielniak, Grzegorz
A2 - De Mattos, Leonardo
A2 - Fiorini, Laura
A2 - Giguere, Philippe
A2 - Hashimoto, Kenji
A2 - Ibanez-Guzman, Javier
A2 - Kamegawa, Tetsushi
A2 - Lee, Jinoh
A2 - Loianno, Giuseppe
A2 - Luck, Kevin
A2 - Maruyama, Hisataka
A2 - Martinet, Philippe
A2 - Moradi, Hadi
A2 - Nunes, Urbano
A2 - Pettre, Julien
A2 - Pretto, Alberto
A2 - Ranzani, Tommaso
A2 - Ronnau, Arne
A2 - Rossi, Silvia
A2 - Rouse, Elliott
A2 - Ruggiero, Fabio
A2 - Simonin, Olivier
A2 - Wang, Danwei
A2 - Yang, Ming
A2 - Yoshida, Eiichi
A2 - Zhao, Huijing
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2025
Y2 - 19 October 2025 through 25 October 2025
ER -